Nice, very nice, indeed.
That said, on the dying soon after retiring front, literature vs engineering
may not be as important as total commitment to a job that makes post-retirement
life seem meaningless. I think of Kazuhiko Kimoto, the Senior Creative Director
who hired me and was my boss for many years at Hakuhodo, Japan’s second largest
advertising agency. Kimoto, with a degree in American Literature from Tokyo
University, spent every day, Sundays included at the office. His life was work,
whiskey, cigarettes, and occasional games of Go. He was said to have a family,
but we never got to see them. He died within three months after retiring in his
sixties.
Lots of varied interests, physical activity and a long happy marriage…I was the
fat kid, total anti-athlete when I was younger. Now my day begins with yoga,
qigong, and kettlebell. In other respects, hanging in as 77 approaches, I see a
lot more similarities between us than when we were on political opposite sides
during the Iraq War.
Stay safe. Stay well. Give us more to read before you go.
John McCreery
On May 11, 2021 11:53 +0900, Lawrence Helm <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, wrote:
In the May 7, 2021 issue of The Times Literary Supplement is a review by Hal
Jensen of The Midlife Mind, Literature and the art of Ageing by Ben
Hutchinson. Hutchinson recommends the reading of literature as an aid to help
one endure ageing. The specifics of what he recommends seem to be the reading
(with the help of Hutchinson's advice) some of the authors included in any
"Great Books" program.
Jensen writes ". . . Hutchinson settles into his main workout routines. These
consist of chapters on Dante, Montaigne, Shakespeare, Goethe, the Victorians
(George Eliot and Henry James), T. S. Eliot, Samuel Beckett and Simone de
Beauvoir. For each, Hutchinson begins with a biographical-critical-historical
survey of the author, with a close look at how they wrote about -- or out of
-- those nebulous and crisis-ridden middle years."
Further down Hutchinson writes, "Each chapter ends with a look at a literary
legacy and asks what lessons these writers can provide for our journey
through the middle, Dante teaches us how to start again while still in
transit, Goethe shows the value of restless curiosity, Eliot demonstrates the
potency -- and necessary difficulty -- of late changes in belief, and
Beauvoir the benefits of gender awareness when ageing. . . Still, I can't
help wishing he had left out the 'Lessons' altogether. They sound glib and
patronizing . . ."
Hutchinson's audience would seem to be those in his age group, i.e., people
in their 40s, who have not encountered the classics, and are worried about
growing older. Jensen makes short work of Hutchinson and concludes, "I
respect Hutchinson's desire to help, but I have probably learned more about
time and mortality from working on my allotment than from any amount of
reading. When it comes to dealing with middle age -- and I say this well
aware of my audience -- books are not enough."
I had a long career in engineering but along the way anticipated that when
those with degrees in Engineering retired with no clearly-thought-out plans,
I would be able to retire to the pleasures of reading.
One might object that formal engineers might have adequate plans for
retirement as well. My own observation has been that many, maybe even most,
don't, or at least didn't (I retired in 1998). I recall an engineer, Jim C.,
who was pointed out to us as having the perfect engineering work-ethic. He
had no outside interests. Engineering was his whole life. About a week after
his retirement, he unexpectedly died.
An engineer I knew much better, Ray L., spent weekends and vacations building
his retirement home in Northern California. I was shocked when he died
unexpectedly before he had a chance to enjoy his new home.
These, and others, were cautionary examples, but perhaps anyone who is
educated in what was in the past considered to be a "trade," is at risk,
mentally and perhaps physically, when attempting to prepare for retirement --
at least more so than in a Liberal Arts major.*
I did take to heart the examples of people I worked with. Among other things,
I had a list of authors I didn't get a chance to read while I was in school,
and worked my way through that during lunch periods, weekends, etc. for
several years. To respond to Jensen (although I don't know what his
"allotment" is), I did have a lot of physical interests. I was a free-diver
(managing to keep my freezer full of fish during many years) and a hiker
(even to the guiding of small groups up into the San Gabriel and San
Bernardino mountains). But I anticipated that in my old age I would do less
diving and hiking and more reading and so congratulated myself that unlike
Jim C. and Ray L. I was educated well enough to (in retirement) engage in
elaborate, self-devised reading programs with relative competence (joining
Jensen in feeling no need of Hutchinson's "lessons."
Lawrence
*How does one with an English major become a competent enough engineer to
have a modestly successful career and a better than average retirement
benefit? I can take no credit for that. I feared I would never graduate from
college if I majored in a subject I wasn't interested in. And so I refused to
worry about getting a job until after I graduated. Then I went through an
employment agency who reviewed my qualifications and sent me to Douglas
Aircraft which at the time was being criticized by the Air Force for sending
them poorly written engineering documentation. The chief engineer ordered
Douglas administrators to find recent college graduates capable of
understanding engineering who could also write.
